Shameful scary headlines in advance of Halloween....
This morning the front page of The Big O's business section recounts the plight of low income Oregon families in the face of rising heating bills. The first example cited is a working mother with three teenagers who has a 'good' job making over $10 an hour. Fuel price increases have vastly outstripped wage increases and public energy assistance has not increased. The article cites 15,000 households around the state being put on waiting lists last winter and not receiving assistance. The money ran out after 20% of the people were served. Not exactly new news, but a reality we've been ignoring. What grabbed me hard, though ,was turning to the next page which was headed by the news that $ 3.29 billion dollars will be spent on Halloween this year with the AVERAGE person spending $ 48.48 on merchandise. Since I don't spend anything on Halloween since the kids got older I'm not sure I know what constitutes merchandise outside mini Mars bars. But something is seriously wrong when the average person spends more money on Halloween than our struggling families can afford for their October heating bill. And I don't buy the idea that all these people are irresponsible, good for nothings, who've gotten themselves into their own mess. The fact that there are such people doesn't for one minute take away the reality that there are children, widows, mentally ill, under educated, physically ill, and hardworking people who aren't making it.
The Oregonian this week also talked about another sad reality: white collar crime pays. The lead example was Andy Wiederhorn who is in jail but is on retainer for millions from his firm. But more commonly, the paper noted that embezzling of less than $ 100,000 in Oregon rarely leads a first offender to jail time and the State is ineffective in enforcing restitution orders. My guess, totally a gut reaction, is that the enforcement divisions were probably cut in recent legislative sessions in the name of eradicating waste in public spending.
I'll be the first to say that it's easy to oversimplify these themes. Nothing in the world is simple. But we collude in the problems we decry if we don't try to take time to understand them and participate in solutions.
heat and Halloween
The Oregonian this week also talked about another sad reality: white collar crime pays. The lead example was Andy Wiederhorn who is in jail but is on retainer for millions from his firm. But more commonly, the paper noted that embezzling of less than $ 100,000 in Oregon rarely leads a first offender to jail time and the State is ineffective in enforcing restitution orders. My guess, totally a gut reaction, is that the enforcement divisions were probably cut in recent legislative sessions in the name of eradicating waste in public spending.
I'll be the first to say that it's easy to oversimplify these themes. Nothing in the world is simple. But we collude in the problems we decry if we don't try to take time to understand them and participate in solutions.
heat and Halloween
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